My Cigar Labels

Cigar labels come in many shapes and designs. Currently, when people purchase cigar labels, the company making them will usually have their logo on the label. People can also personalize their logos by designing the label themselves, using their company logo as a marketing tool and they are even great for weddings. The bride and groom can put their initials or wedding colors on the labels.

Cigar labels have certainly transformed themselves over the years. Initially, cigars didn’t come with labels. According to myth, nobles in the seventeen and eighteen hundreds put labels on their cigars so that they wouldn’t get any stain from the cigars on their white hands. It is also thought that the person who invented the cigar label was a gentlemen who simply wanted a way to keep the cigar together and the label bonded and sealed it.

The art on many cigar labels could be considered “historical art”. Labels started out having intricate design, over time, the art became more and more modern to adjust with the times. People are now starting to go back to the “historical art” because it was so unique.

The purpose of having an attractive and artistic label is, of course, to sell more cigars. Most people, who smoke cigars, also collected art so it is complimentary to put them together. They believe the art is a collectible.

People have been smoking tobacco ever since the Aztec era. The plants, known as broad leaf plants, are grown all over the world. There is rumor that Christopher Columbus was one of the first Europeans to experience a cigar and that he was also persecuted for smoking one.

Americans started smoking cigars during the Civil War and grew rapidly from that point forward with the height of the industrial period. Attractive labels were created in order to sell more cigars to Americans and new labels were created consistently.

Everyone was smoking in the 1920’s and cigar sales skyrocketed. There were hundreds of thousands of brand name cigars on the market. As economics would dictate, there was a surge of demand with little supply for cigars so of course prices went up. When cigars were first being sold on the market you could purchase one for about three cents and within 30 years it went up to sixty cents.

Artists were virtually free at this point to design whatever they wanted, with the approval of the owner. There were many talented artists designing the labels and were full of color and history. The designs ranged from having animals to Indians to famous people. It was also popular to put political figures on the designs such as senators and presidents. The animals used were usually farm animals such as sheep, horses, and dogs. There were also wild animals as well such as bears, elk and wolves.

Since men have always been the target market for cigars, of course they would have designs of some of the most beautiful women. They usually had their breasts exposed and revealed plenty of other parts of their bodies. They would even put women with animals such as a lion.

Anything that was going on at the time was reflected in the artwork. America had and still has cowboys and Indians, but the culture of cowboys and Indians was much more apparent in the early eighteen and nineteen hundreds than it is today, so that was used often.

Many artists that designed cigar labels were not known and stayed that way, but there were also cigar label artists that were easily recognized.

Another cigar label art form that was used was stone lithography, where they pulled the art right from the stone. There wasn’t much to it. All an artist would have needed were some stones, paper, water, ink and drawings. They usually used limestone to create their pictures. The stones were cut into a square, or had a ninety degree angle and then polished the surface. The surface needed to be as smooth as possible. Limestone naturally has holes in it to be able to hold pockets of grease. Anywhere on the stone that didn’t have pockets would just absorb the rest of the water. The artist then draws directly on the stone. He or she can use any tool for the drawing such as pen, crayon or brush. The grease in the stone serves as ink. The picture would be reversed at this point and the artist had to be aware of that for the print to come out correctly. The artist then smoothed out the stone in preparation to print. Although it was the most expensive way to make labels at the time, it produced the liveliest colors.

Many people to this day have collected cigar labels just because of their art. People will probably always smoke cigars so there will always be a need for labels. With all the software and internet websites available out there, it is easy to design your own labels, but nothing can top the artwork that was created in the seventeen to eighteen hundreds.